Two Weeks
by Hiyuki Masu
Summary: It started with a dare, and snowballed into a contest. 5 guys, 1 girl. Who will win her? OcXGaara OcXNeji OcXSasuke OcXNaruto OcXKiba
1. Day 1

It all started with a dare. It all ended with a dare. That dare would end up changing your life more then you would ever know, the odd thing was you didn't even know about it, all these life-changing events going on beneath your sensor range, something that would have normally enraged you, and in the end I suppose it did, but you'll find that out later. It all started with an intensive round of truth or dare, whilst you were asleep in your bed miles away your fate was being sealed. Ino scoffed as she looked around at Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, Neji, Shikamaru, half-awake, and Gaara lurking in the corner.

"I've got a good one for all of you" said Ino. Kiba raised an eyebrow. _Oh you're going to thank me for this later... or kill me. _

"And what exactly would that be?"

"Which ever of you can steal Nyx's heart in two weeks, wins. I suppose it's more of a contest really, may the best man win." That last bit sealed the deal. You watched as each of them perk up slightly. Every guy is always looking to defeat another in some way, usually in a competition odd isn't it? While girls tend to be subtler about it. Somewhere far away an alarm in Nyx's head went off. Her face twitched into her pillow and suppressed it. And so the hot-blooded competition of men began…

Day 1

You were slightly disturbed about your dream last night. It had really freaked you out. It was all you could think about as you walked down the street on edge. You didn't remember all of it precisely but you did remember most of it. You were in a ring, a dark pit if you will. There were people around cheering for something. The pit began to fill with water. You were drowning. There were a few floating rings, but every time you tried to get close to one another one would bump it out of the way. Just as your miniature head had sunk under water you awoke cold sweat beading your head. It was just a dream, just a dream. You relaxed and continued on your way.

"Hey -" you turned around so fast you couldn't even control yourself. You'd panicked apparently the "it's just a dream" thing doesn't really work too well. You froze, your foot still suspended in the air above Sasuke's grounded head. He looked up at you with an expression that read something like 'I should not have gotten out of bed this morning'. You grimaced and held out your hand.

"Sorry," you couldn't even think to say anything else, how lame. He was obviously angry, but withheld it. "So did you want something or…" you said after a while. He paused probably debating whether this was worth it or not.

"I'll be right back." You sighed, shrugged, and you were on your way. Someone was losing it and it defiantly wasn't you. You winced as the difference in light from the nice cool shadowed alley you had been walking down to the crowded sun filled area that was where you now stood, disturbed. You had merely wanted to get some breakfast then go back home and sleep and sleep until lunch then get some food the sleep maybe train a bit and then maybe some more sleep. That sounded perfect to you.

"Hey" you groaned extremely loud not wanting to see which poor unfortunate soul awaited your wrath. And as usual, it was the worst possible… Naruto. It wasn't that you didn't like Naruto, and I assure you, you do. Its just Naruto was so very…. "Hey, you wanna go get some ramen or some breakfast or something?" … So very active. "Oh yeah I forgot how moody you are in the morning but you wont get mad at me, will you?" your glare was the answer to his question. As soon as you'd lost Naruto in a large crowd of touristy shoppers, you snaked your way stealthily between legs. At last you had gotten your bagel without any disruption. You and your bagel were headed over to the training grounds, to train? What are you crazy? You'd simply sit in the grass nap and watch other people practice. As you closed your eyes and let the warm sun wash over your face you relaxed almost completely. A shadow disrupted your sun.

"Whoever you are, move… _please_"

"Your in a good a mood as ever, Nyx" you fake laughed and rolled over praying to god that he wouldn't sit down. But sure enough there was now a shadow blocking your sun.

"Neji, MOVE" you shoved him out of the way. "God, shouldn't you be, I don't know training?" you did _not_ like Neji.

"Probably, although I'd rather relax" at that you really had to open your eyes to check who it was. Neji, the guy who always told you you were incompetent and told you to train every second of the day, something was really wrong you had been approached by 3 people already, something was weird. "…With you" you inched slowly away from him.

"Who the hell are you? Because you are not Neji about now Neji would say something like" you put on a fake manly voice "'the truth is you can ever beat me' and then I'll say I know and then you'll get angry and leave, that's just how it works, are you not yet familiar with the system?"

"And what if I want to change?" you shook your head unable to believe what he had just said. He was out of his mind, completely insane, no longer then Neji you'd learned to hate.

"I suppose its like you say we've all got a destiny and I'm afraid you cant change it. I don't need a crystal ball to see that I'm not in your future." You stood up, not looking at him for effect. You were so tempted to see if you'd really landed that one, but you couldn't. You continued to walk, rocking to the beat of the song you had stuck in your head. You were in a good mood now. As you walked, not looking where you were going, across the training ground dodging attacks from younger ninja who wanted to prove that they were not completely inept, not that they were really doing that purpose justice. You'd finally escaped the clutches of some academy student's rather pathetic possession and had started heading home. You entered the light shadow of the back alleys toward your apartment. A soft wind blew, causing your hair to go crazy. It was really starting to aggravate you. You squinted as the locks fluted clouding your vision. There was someone at the end of the alley. Around your height with short hair, brown, you thought, it was blurry, hard to see with sleep still pulling down on your eyes. The wind stopped and your hair settled. He was there someone was defiantly there. You stared curiously as the wind blew again. Maybe he was magic or maybe you were insane but he seemed to be crumbling away into the air. By the time you'd blinked, he was gone. Maybe he wasn't even there, you walked over to the stream and washed your face, maybe if you woke up you'd stop hallucinating, only if you were lucky. A twig snapped far off in the woody distance. You stood at attention like a deer that sensed danger.

"Who's there?" there was a shadow creeping sketchily along the trees, dodging in and out of sight obviously not wanting to be seen. A voice echoed from the trees

"I could ask you the same thing." You looked around. Shadows everywhere, his voice was coming from every angle all at once, clones?

"I've got nothing to hide so I guess I'll go first. I'm Nyx, a ninja…" you heard a leaf crunch from the tree closer to you. Instinctively, without thinking you threw a kunai at the tree. A poor disheveled half asleep Shikamaru stood with his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender.

"What brings you to this neck of the woods?" he said in his sleepy, I-wish-I-never-had-to-do-anything voice. You laughed sarcastically.

"Your just so punny I can't stand it, stop it before my spleen bursts… nothing just trying to wake myself from the nightmarish hallucination that is my day so far, you?"

"Just sleeping. I can't remember how I got here but that doesn't matter." You looked at him like he was insane. How could you just wake up somewhere, not knowing how you got there and be completely fine about it? Shikamaru was a puzzle you were missing a ton of pieces for. "What's so nightmarish about it?" you sighed and thought.

"Nah, don't listen to me I'm being over dramatic." You stood "I'll see you around." He nodded and you took off. You looked both ways every time you rounded a corner just to make sure that no one was there, you simply wanted to go home. Was that so much to ask? You looked left and shifted right, no one. Somewhere in the depths of you mind the jaws theme was playing, overdramatically. You fumbled with the key, trying to make as little noise as possible. The door creaked open slowly light flooded every corner. You dumped the groceries on the floor and flopped down on the couch trying to ignore the irritating stinging that was flowing through your veins. Especially around your ankle, you could only assume this was pins and needles, so again you were forced to go for a walk. You'd been tired for almost a week now it was getting old, very old.

"Hey," said sakura in a more bubbly way then usual.

"Hey," you said off in space. She stared at you in horror.

"Nyx-Chan its 8 in the morning where's angry Nyx?" you looked over at her. You could tell she was staring at the bags under your eyes.

"She's asleep right now but leave a message and she might get back to you later, and she also requests that you don't call her –Chan, it make her skin crawl." She gave you a very sakura look.

"Ha, ha, ha, Nyx-Chan your so edge you need a safety guard. I'll talk to you later when your more you, bye." You watched her walk away. -Did she not hear me?- You muttered to yourself out loud. You could barely even keep your eyes open anymore and this pain in your ankle was ridiculous. Your head slowly drooped down to a place where you were literally walking around in an un-wake able coma.

"Ngh," groaned your sleep walking self. "No, no more."

"Bad time then?" you looked up into Sasuke's ice-cold eyes and met them with your fiercest glare, the one you reserved just for him. "Hmph I'll take that as a yes." You glared at his back as he receded into the distance. You'd never know him to act like that. No one knew him to ever act like that, was he flirting? Maybe he was taking your hate the wrong way, maybe he thought you liked—you common sense took over after that, refusing any thought about Sasuke to cross your now fully awake mind.

FF no one had tried to talk to you while you trained a good sign that things were getting back to normal. It was about 4 so you were in a much better mood, being more of a night person. You smiled as Hinata approached you.

"Hey," you started.

"Hello, how are you Nyx-Chan?" you felt the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.

"Good, and don't call me Chan, you?" there was no particular reason for you to dislike being called Chan you just felt it made everything more complex and you'd rather have it nice and simple. She smiled

"Okay then," she looked off into the darkening street. Neji stood waiting for her at the far end. "I'm off." You waved feeling stupid noticing she hadn't looked back anyway. You looked at the elongating shadows. It would take a while to get to your place and the shortest way was through eerie dark very narrow alleyways, somewhere you didn't want to go. You calculated what would be then next best way and while you thought the sun continued to set without your awareness. Once you had snapped fully into conciseness you were almost completely surrounded in the thickest darkness you'd ever been in. you'd been to many villages but somehow this was the most threatening and ominous. All you could do was sit in a small rundown pie shop. The old lady at the counter was staring you down with beady nasty old lady eyes, frown marks and everything.

"How are you doing deary?"

"Oh uh fine." She raised one eyebrow. You stared at her in a jealous wave. You'd always wanted to do that.

"You waiting for someone?"

"No… not necessarily," she looked sour now.

"Come now deary, don't go ahead and spill out your life story I haven't got the time. It's real busy around here lately. " She picked up the broom and started muttering about how horrible children where these days, when a poor old lady tries to make some small talk blah, blah, blah. She looked up as thought she'd had a brilliant idea.

"Want a piece of pie, darling?" _ugh_ you thought. You gave her a look. She smiled revealing missing teeth and the yellowing others that would soon follow. The sight of her face sent shivers down your spine.

"No thanks, I'm not very hungry." You ignored the piece of ice-cold unidentified red filling filled piece of pie she'd set down in front of you, you thought it was some sort of berry.

"Have some, sweetie, you seem down." You pushed the pie to the other side of the table

"Really, its ok." The lady sat down across from you and smiled her freaky twisted, toothless smile. She looked you in the eye. She wouldn't look away. You knocked the plate on the floor.

"I don't want any of your freaking pie."

"I think I know what's the matter." You saw it in her eyes it was terrifying. She saw right through you. "You know you can't hide it." you heart almost stopped as the bell jingled. You looked at the boy in the doorway with a calm mask covering your face. Your insides relaxed as you let out a breath.

"Hey, Gaara." He looked at you with an amazingly expressionless face. He looked at the lady, the pie on the floor, your clearly fake calm face, and the freaky old lady who seemed to blink less often then most people.

"Am I interrupting?"

"Uh, no I was just on my way out actually, uh, bye." With a whip of your hair you turned out the door in the ominous too thick to be natural darkness. Gaara began to walk away something inside of you panicked. You didn't like to be alone. You hit something hard, a wall of sand.

"are you following me?"

"No, just headed in the same direction." The sand pushed you to your feet and retreated. An awkward silence drifted over the two of you. It wasn't a comfortable silence. you both felt it. He continued to walk and you continued to follow, like a puppy who'd lost its owner. You were a bit nervous. I mean, you were only human. You'd heard a lot of rumors about him, Not very good ones at that, but right now he was your only option.

"I haven't seen you around before." There had been this one rumor. "Where are you from?" it had freaked everyone else out.

"Around." Why? It was only a rumor. It shouldn't scare people that much.

"Where do you live?" he was a…

"Around." He'd killed? No, that wasn't it. it had something to do with a demon you knew that, like Naruto the rumor was that he was like Naruto with a demon sealed inside of him. There had been something else, blood? Sand? It had been a story that was it, one from the chunin. Gaara had killed someone with sand… and it smelt like blood. He also like to… that was it. You couldn't even bear to think about it. You knees were weak.

"You're scared aren't you?" you groaned internally. Had it been _that_ obvious? Could he sense it? "Then why are you still following me?"

"I told you. I live around here." You might not be very good at masking your emotions but you were an amazing liar. He wouldn't be getting the truth out of you ever. He obviously sensed that he wasn't the only thing you were scared of.

"I'll walk you there then." He puzzled you. His icy inflection suggested that he'd rather eat cow dung then walk you home and yet he was still forcing himself to do it. He followed you for a while in a chilly silence. He forced himself to speak. "Are you scared of something?" you glared at him.

"No." you snapped. You had to force the temptation to sneer away. "Sorry," there was an awkward silence as you reached the door of your small apartment "thanks, a lot."

"Hmph" an enigma, just like Naruto. You flicked on the lights and slammed the door. You flopped down on your bed after traveling over the sea of decay that was your floor, fully dressed and gently closed your eyes.


	2. Day 2

Day 2

You sat in your usual spot for a good morning write and nap. You were up much earlier then usual, not a good sign. You twiddled the pen in-between your fingers thinking of something else to write. The wind ruffled your hair. You didn't even bother setting it straight. You were in a trace, Unreachable and almost un-wake able. The pen flowed across the paper with no effort whatsoever on your part, you could barely even recognize what you were writing about. Someone crept up behind you, their head peeked over your shoulder, reading the first lines. Your arm veered of to the left causing a deep gash of gray to appear. You looked at your arm. You hadn't meant to do that.

"That's really good writing." Every muscle in your body tensed, like an animal being hunted. You looked over with a calm mask to the boy's head on you shoulder, Sasuke. "But a little morbid don't you think?" he leaned in closer and whispered in your ear. "It doesn't change the fact that it's beautiful." Your mind flashed a memory resurfaced. Without even thinking your arm shot back into Sasuke's chest forcing him away from you. The ground started shifting as you stood, the air was getting thinner and thinner, harder to breath. You were gasping for air. Your stomach was churning. You looked over terrified something was crawling under you skin, bugs. There were bugs crawling under your skin! Lights flashed, you closed your eyes, begging for it to stop. **You can make it stop if you want to.** You looked around, there was Sasuke on the ground watching you sway obviously thinking you were either insane or way too emotional, **you know how.** Pain shot through your arm forcing you to let go of the tree the only thing keeping you standing. You collapsed. This was an odd sensation, was had this a dream? You almost whished it was. Maybe it was simply a dream, nothing more. You couldn't feel anything anyway, it felt like you were apart from your body but still looking through the same eyes. Sasuke approached you slowly making sure you wouldn't beat him again, this was a bet he would most defiantly win, no matter what.

"Are you ok?" he felt your forehead. "You should go see a doctor you don't look too good." You cleared your throat

"I'm fine. I went last week, the Flu. I'm still on medicine." You looked at his eyes. You didn't like them pitch black, flowing into yours. You sat up, almost hitting him in the process.-ABORT ABORT- Only one thing was clear to you, it was time to go. "I'm sorry maybe I will go back, it was uh, great seeing you." You stood up, head held high, grabbed your notebook and scampered off. –What the hell was that? Since when does _Sasuke_ wear his emotions on his sleeves? Since when does he ever act like that?- you rubbed your aching head. –Too much, just too much- you walked off hoping to go somewhere that was not here to clear your mind. You looked down from the rooftop of "Herbs & More". All the little people going somewhere or doing something, it was like each of them had something to do, a job, a purpose. You stared up at the clear blue sky, not a cloud in sight. You herd the door creek open and someone sat down next to you. It took you a second for you to recognize the person sitting next to you.

"Hey Shikamaru" he looked over at you with that same overused tired expression.

"Can I join you?"

"Please," there was a small silence. "So you uh, come here often?" –you come here often? YOU COME HERE OFTEN?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?- he looked over at you with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, do you?"

"Indeed," you were so lucky it was Shikamaru. If it had been Naruto or Sasuke or Kiba or anyone else they would have found it so incredibly awkward they wouldn't have known what to do. Except for maybe Naruto, he probably would have made fun of you.

"Would you be here tonight at 8?" you looked over to him. Typical Shikamaru not even looking at you, you shook your head in disappointed disbelief.

"Only if you'll be here." You smiled and shivered. You looked around at the other people all walking along in shorts and t-shirts looking content. You shivered again. "Hey, Shikamaru, is it really cold right now?" he raised his eyebrows

"No it's actually pretty hot. You feeling ok?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." He looked over at you with a worried expression.

"You sure?" you shook your head, stood up, and walked away. You held on tight to the railing on the stairs, dizziness setting in. you roughly bumped into someone. They started to talk but you continued to walk, not seeing or noticing them. You touched your neck expecting to feel it there but it wasn't. You flew down the stairs mind racing. –I dropped it. I dropped. It's gone. Its gone forever I'm never going to find it again- negative thoughts whirled around in our mind. You searched everywhere you'd been in the last week, nothing. You sat on the bench in front of the pie shop you'd been in last night.

"Nyx." Anger shot through your veins.

"WHAT." You said with the implication that you would very much like to light whoever had disturbed you on fire and watch them burn.

"Bad time?" you calm down at the sight of him

"No, just not feeling too good. What'd you want?"

"Would a concert tomorrow make you feel better?" You smiled weakly.

"Yeah, I'd love that." Naruto smiled hugely. God he made you so happy you could cry. You sniffled.

"We've got company." Gaara was walking towards you, -emotionless as ever- you sighed. He motioned for you to hold out your hand. And into it he dropped a locket. You stared at it not ready to believe it was real. You caressed the blackened decrepit hideous little thing in your fingers. Word could not express your feelings at that moment, your thoughts stopped. He turned and began to walk away. You looked at Naruto hopelessly, your words had stopped coming out. He nodded and you shot after Gaara. You searched through crowds of people –if I was a mad killer with mixed up emotions were would I be?- you thought pictures flashed through your mind, all the places you'd ever been. It settled on one image. –Alone, I'd... be… alone- you felt the same feeling you'd felt before like something in your chest was pushing its way out. You walked over to the swing in front of the academy. And there he was, staring off into the distance. You bit your lip begging he wouldn't kill you. No… that wasn't how you felt, that wasn't what you thought. That was what you should be thinking, shouldn't you? That's how a sane person would feel right? You tapped him on the shoulder.

"Uh, Gaara?" he turned and looked you in the eye. They only met yours for a split second but yours immediately recognized them. He was just like him, exactly. He blinked and the soft loneliness disappeared they were now hard and cold, like chips of ice.

"Yes?" you shook your self out of your thoughts

" Uh…" –idiot, I am the world's biggest idiot. I didn't even think of anything to say- "did you open it?" you snapped. –What the hell? I meant to thank him.- it was like your body and mind were having a battle and the war ground was your common sense. His face showed that this was exactly what he expected, more abuse.

"No." he said coldly. As he stood from the swing it flew backwards and just at the angle you were standing at it hit you in the stomach, and knocked the wind out of you. He looked over at you. "Are you alright?" your face twitched into a smile. –He noticed- the truth was, it hadn't knocked the wind out of you. It hadn't even hit you, but something about him made you want to help him. Even thought it was pretty obvious he didn't want to be helped. You clutched the locket. Gaara held out his hand offering to help you up after falling to your knees. You took it.

"Thanks, and just forget you ever saw this, okay?" he looked puzzled but agreed. Then turned and walked away. "Hey!" you called to his turned back. "If you ever want to talk to someone or hang out, you know where I live!" he continued walking. You looked up at the sun you guessed it was around 7. There was no need to get ready to hang out with Shikamaru. It wasn't like he'd be doing anything special.

FF you smiled at him, he'd brought pillows and blanket. Shikamaru waved lazily a sharp pain shot through the back of your shoulder and up your neck. You suppressed it and sat down next to him.

"Fancy meeting you here." You ruffled his ponytail and lay down shoulder to shoulder. You looked up at all the cute little stars winking at you. You and Shikamaru talked vaguely. You were enjoying this mostly because it was Shikamaru and the fact that he has the romanticism of a rock, an ugly one at that.

"Yeah all the way up there you see it? It's kinda yellowish, that's Venus the goddess of love and beauty. You and her got a lot in common." You gave him a sideways look with raised eyebrows. He blushed and stuttered, "I mean your both goddesses, I mean your name Nyx. I guess your both rather beautiful too." –one stutter, one blush, one compliment and he's back to being Mr. Play-it-cool, fantastic.-

"You're not so bad yourself." You said with sarcasm and a dose of cold to go along. You shivered it was uncharacteristically cold. Shikamaru held you but you felt his reluctance. You mentally crossed him off on your list, if he was reluctant around you…your thoughts were cut off by you noticing someone on a roof a few houses away. You felt the familiar feeling of anger pulsing through you. This would be an excellent chance to test him. You pushed him off, hard.

"So what you think you can just say something sweet and I'm all yours? You think that's it? Hell no wonder your so useless." Something in the back of your mind felt almost bad for saying it, but that part was so unused you couldn't even hear it anymore. You thought you'd heard someone call it a conscience. He ignored you and went back to looking at the stars as thought you'd never been there at all. You walked over to him, kicked him in the face, then headed off to Gaara, sitting alone on a roof staring up at a single red tinted star. Your legs were shaking slightly from the fact that you'd barely eaten anything today. He looked at you the second your foot met the roof. You sat nervously, not next to him but closer then far.

"Why do you continue to show up?" he hadn't taken his eyes off of you. "Your terrified. I can feel your legs shaking." His eyes were somewhere between lonely and cold. You thought about his words. –That's a good question, he brings this chill down my spine and yet I insist on seeing him. Its- your thoughts were cut off. " Fear isn't a good thing." you thought about that. "Fear isn't a good thing." In all fairness that was true but… there was this feeling you had a dipping in your stomach. You loved it it kept things interesting. You looked at him. He was back to looking at the little red star. Ignoring his previous question…

"You see that little red star?" he nodded. "That's my brother, Kazuma… You have any stars?" he looked at you implying that this was ridiculous and pointless and stupid, in other words he turned on his coldness vibe. "Alright then, I guess I'll see you later." You stood. –He wants to be alone then let him be alone. Let him drown in an ocean of his own self-pity. May he'll just go and-

"That one," you stopped dead. Gaara making an effort it was a miracle. "It's my uncle, he died along time ago, killed on a mission."

"Which one?" he looked at you, then up at the sky. He pointed to the faintest star there.

"That one." You felt the happiness flowing out of you, for no reason. You walked slowly back over to him.

"What was he like?" he held his face in his hands and massaged it, like he didn't want to have to look at you.

"Can we not do this? He's dead. He's gone. He's not coming back so there's not point in talking about him." You smiled. You liked him. He was just like you.

"Deal. Could we just start over again? "

"Fine. Sabuko no Gaara at your service." (Yeah Gaara actually says that in the manga) your eyes widened. You remembered him now. You managed to hold a calm mask long enough to ask him one question.

"Sabuko? The fourth Kazekage?" he nodded and the memory of that day came rushing back. She'd started it in the first place you were out camping in the woods, not too long ago. She'd tried to steel your food and your locket, an extremely old valuable thing. You cast the only justu you could think of that early, a justu of your own creation, one so horrible you'd never dare cast it on anyone you cared anything for, but this girl had it coming. A justu that pulls out all your worst memories and forces you to re watch them. She was playing ball in the schoolyard and some idiot had kicked it over the wall. This little kid with red hair, you were all told to stay away from him. So when he retrieved the ball you all started running. Not wanted to get in trouble or get mixed up with that kid, the fourth Kazekage's second son. Just her luck he sent out his sand, not wanting to be alone anymore it wrapped around her ankle and started pulling her. She was scared not knowing what was going on. A man ran out in front of you severing the chain of sand. The memories continued. She even witnessed him kill his own uncle. "Are you alright?" you winced. –Make it stop.- and it did. You were back on the roof with Gaara legs shaking furiously.

"Yeah, Nyx Sashimi pleasure to meet you." you had to get away. You looked up at Kazuma. – Not fair, you get the easy way out, up there just looking down on us. I bet you wish you were down here, well you know what I'll switch with you any day. We never get what we want huh?- you were both back to being absorbed in thought.

"I'm going now." You both said at the same time. And without another word you set off to your apartment. Every time you blinked you saw them looming out of the dark, little tear stained eyes. You shook yourself out of it and lay down in your bed, ignoring the stabbing pain in your shoulder. You were getting sick of this. This horrid lonely feeling that your heart carried around. You were going to do something you'd change this.


End file.
